First Impressions of Planet Earth.

So this is pretty much life at H@nken in a week-format:

Monday, 6:45am wake up.
Take the train to Helsinki.
Go to class at 10:15am.
Go sign HOAS contract, print syllabus, eat lunch, run around doing bureaucratic things, get library books.
Go to class at 2:30pm.
Make groups for the "upcoming" project due October 7th. [And arrange to meet the next day.]
Take the tram to Matti and Anne's, read, hang out, make/eat dinner, read, go to bed.

Tuesday, 7am wake up.
Read. Eat. Return library book [1/2].
Go to group meeting at 10am. Organize research plan for project. Discuss options.
Eat lunch.
Take the 13:06 train back to Tampere.
Arrive in Tampere at 14:52. Meet Jackie and Juha at the station.
Go to Hesburger. Eat french fries. Walk home. Nap. Walk to WokWok. Eat.
Go to Makuuni. Pick up car. Watch "The Ghost Writer." Enjoy. Go to bed.

Wednesday, 6:15am wake up.
Eat. Pack. Leave.
Load a few things in the car. Drive to Helsinki. Drop off car.
Take the tram to the train station. Drop off Jackie's stuff.
Run to 10:15am mandatory attendance guest lecture. Enjoy profusely/take notes.
Meet Jackie. Go to train station. Inquire about bus times. See Jackie off.
Go to bank. Go pick up keys from HOAS. Call Sara. Meet Sara. Drink coffee. Have a long meeting discussing project [later find out it's only worth 5%] and life in general. Take tram to car. Have Sara lead the way to my apartment. Move 2 things into the apartment. Meet new roommate: Nina. Drive to TAIKK. Pick up Pirjo. Have Pirjo drop us off. Walk with Sara to tram. Go to Valintatalo and stock up on some necessities for the night. Come home. Cook dinner. Read. Eat. Read. Write [no computer] report for project. Read. Take a shower. Go to bed in empty room void of any light... not even ceiling lamp.

Thursday, 7am wake up.
Eat, 'pack' aka put a shirt in my bag. Take the bus to school.
Go to the computer lab and print articles to read for the weekend. Type up project from the night before. Meet Sara to discuss everything not related to project. Be interviewed for school's external relations marketing campaign. Receive free t-shirt and lunch. Eat. Run to catch 13:06 train back to Tampere. Sleep on train after hopeless attempts trying to read. Arrive in Tampere at 14:52. Walk home. Talk to Juha. Read. Go to Sale. Read. Make dinner. Read. Skype with Mom. Watch TV. Pass out.

Friday, 8am wake up... and after some hesitation 8:30am wake up.
Re-read syllabus. Eat. Write assignment due today at 2pm. Eat chocolate. Listen to 'Rocket in the Sky' by Benny Benassi. Dance a little. Watch interview from yesterday. Sweat. Re-read assignment. Facebook. Receive duck delivery. Blog... and here we are.

I'm hoping that conveyed the serious hectic nature of this week... but don't worry, there's more next week, due next week and to do this weekend. So I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

Mini-stress?

I'm not sure how capable I am of having a melt-down due to stress because I really can't say I've been stressed about much these past few months. That being said, I know myself to be capable of increased amounts of feeling overwhelmed [illiterate much? I know. :/ ]...

So here I am, trying to plan my schedule for this coming period [1 semester = 2 periods], without a place to live in Helsinki [Thanks student housing association! If I applied 4 months early, then who the hell got all the spots?] and without fully understanding how the system works. I don't know if I need to do this right now... but we're in grad school. I am not under the impression that I'm gonna go to orientation and someone will hold my hand and help me figure this out. Nor do I want to send people 100 emails asking questions which may be answered next week. But having learned from experience and some 'oh-so-helpful' advisors at McGill, if they're gonna do anything in the first week, they'll make you cry. [That man was evil. And I'm not the only person he made cry.] Okay so as this story gets progressively more confusing and you can tell I haven't been in school for awhile, I'm unsure about the point of this post haha.

Point being:
- I'm taking 2 courses in the first period. They are Mon/Tues at 8:30am and 2:30pm so I should make some friends asap so I don't hang out alone for the 4 and a half hour break.
- I want to join some clubs and actually get involved in school stuff this time around... not to mention a job. A job would be SOLID.
- I want to take a Finnish conversation course here in Tampere but it's on Wednesday evenings and my 2nd period will slightly resemble Satan's face...with and without that course... and even worse without an apartment.
- I'm trying to find other Finnish courses I could take but every website has its own hoops to jump through.
- I'm also looking for an active and a creative course to fill my time with... so any suggestions for places or even activities to give me a starting point would be greatly appreciated.

Kbye.

P.S. I heart The National.

Recent inactivity.

So one of the reasons I haven't been blogging much lately, other than my recent passion for cooking, is because I've been generally overwhelmed. I'm not talking culture shock this time, but rather life-overwhelmedness. Days and weeks go by really fast, yet I don't feel like I'm accomplishing a whole lot so I'm trying a new approach.

I want to wake up earlier in the morning. Slowly start rising around 8am instead of 9am... that change can be gradual and I'm not sure if fully recommended since I can barely keep my eyes open around 11pm anymore. I do, however, often make it to midnight!

I want to study Finnish first thing every morning. I've been waking up and eating while I check Facebook and decided, that's just not a good way to start the day. I had emails and messages piling up all over the place and nothing was getting done. I wasn't even blogging because I couldn't be bothered at the time. I think a much better way to start every day is with a couple chapters of Finnish. For example, I did that this morning and here I am! Blogging and taking pictures of soup haha.

I want to start focusing my job hunting efforts into one field. I've been feeling like I'm spread a bit too thin. I have my English tutoring efforts, my applications to recruiting companies, my writing [which is purely for fun right now], my university applications [which are finally more or less done! - I say this because of my one lose end in Montreal], my language school applications... etc... As you can see, this can get quite out of hand. So I've decided to make goals and stick to them and gradually work my way through my top priorities first and then tackle all the other stuff.

And now, my next goal is to eat lunch and watch an episode of House!
Hyvää päivää!